Die and die-holder



(Nmoal.)

VP. H. LA PIERRE. DIE AND DIE HOLDER.

Patented Mar. 10, 1896..

I @9M/meow@ I @brom/m NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE..

FRANK H. LA PIERRE, OF EAST ORANGE, NEV JERSEY.

DIE AND DIE-HOLDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of. Letters Patent No. 556,060, dated March10, 1896. Application iiled June 3,1895. Serial No. 551,553. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern/.-

Be it known that I, FRANK H. LA PIERRE, a citizen of the United States,residing at East Orange, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey,have invented certainV new and useful Improvements in Dies andDie-Holders, of which the following is a specification. This inventionrelates to dies used for producing hollow silverware andthe like, andthe invention consists in a novel construction of the changeable diesand die-holder, as hereinafter more fully described.

Figure l is a perspective view of the dieholder and the removable dies,and Fig. 2 is a central vertical section of the same with the blankinserted ready for operation.

It is customary to form hollow ware and other articles of silver orsimilar ductile metal by first drawing` the metal into the form of atube, open at one or both ends, according to the nature or the articleto be formed, inserting the tube into dies of the required shape,filling the tube with rubber of the proper consistency, and then bymeans of a punch forcing the rubber down in the tube or blank, andthereby pressing the latter outward in the dies, thus imparting to itthe required form or shape. As these articles are usually of anirregular form, it is necessary to use at least two dies which can beseparated for the removal of the article after it is formed; and theobject of the present invention is to so construct the dies and thedie-holder as to insure accuracy of Work and at the same time facilitatethe operation and enable the dies to be readily and quickly changed, asis necessary to form the various articles, and with these ends in view Iconstruct them as follows:

In the drawings,A represents the die-holder, which is secured to the bedof the press in the usual manner, by bolts iitting in the slots at itsopposite ends. The central portion of this die-holder is made to projectof such a height as to enable a recess to be formed therein deep enoughto enable both the upper and lower dies, B and O, to be set therein, asrepresented in Fig. 2.

The recess in the die-holder A is provided with a continuousscrew-thread its entire depth, and the dies B and G are both provided ontheir exterior with a corresponding screwthread, as shown in Figs. l and2, the lower die, C, being provided with a couple of holes c for theinsertion of the prongs of a suitable wrench or tool for screwing it inand out of its seat in the holder.

As the upper die has to be removed at each Operation, it is providedwith a handle or lever D, by which it can be quickly unscrewed from theholder, this upper die entering the holder but a short distance, justenough to hold it secure, so that but a few turns are necessary torelease it.

As it is necessary to change the dies with each change of article, thelever or handle D is so made that it can readily be removed from one dieand attached to another, and for that reason it is constructed as shownin Fig. l, the ring portion which clasps the die being split and havingprojecting ends e, which are provided with a screw-bolt a., by whichthey can be drawn together and made to clamp the die sufficiently tightto enable the latter to be turned and thus be screwed in and out of theholder at will.

Vhen the dies are to be changed it is only necessary to release theclamping-bolt @,When the handle D can be quickly detached from the dieand be attached to the one that is to be substituted, and thus the onehandle is made to answer for any number of dies of the same externaldiameter, the idea being to make a large number and variety of dies ofthe same external diameter, so that all may be used in the same holder,the cavity in which the articles are formed being varied, of course,according to the shape and size of the various articles to be produced.

It is of course obvious that the dies may be plain or figured, so as toproduce a plain or an embossed surface on the articles, as is customary.

It will readily be seen that by this construction the dies and theirholder are simple and cheap to make, can be quickly assembled by anyordinary workman, that the upper die can be quickly removed andreplaced, and that the handle can be quickly changed from one die toanother, and thus be made to answer for any number of dies. The dies andtheir seat in the holder being circular in form, they can be quicklyformed by lathe-work, and with the required accuracy.

In the drawings, E represents the tube or Ico blank of which the articleis to be formed, R the rubber used to expand the same in the dies, and Pthe plunger of the press for forcing the rubber down and pressing theblank against the interior of the dies, any suitable press being usedfor the purpose, and which it is therefore unnecessary to show.

I am aware that a two-part die for the forining of watch-cases by meansof a roller has been used, said die being held in place by anoverlapping annular cap screwed on the dieholder, and that an upper diefor stamping sheet metal has been secured by a screwthread to thereciprocating portion of the press, and therefore I do not claim such;but,

IIavin g fully described my invention, what I claim is- As animprovement in mechanism for forming hollow' sheet-metal articles, thebodies of which are of greater diameter than their mouths orextremities, the combination of a die-holder A provided with a centralrecess having a screw-thread on its interior wall, an d the two-part dieB, C, provided with a ccntral cavity having its greatest diameter at thepoint where the two parts meet, both of said parts being provided ontheir exterior with a screw-thread corresponding with the screwthread ofthe die-holder, whereby the parts are longitudinally seated in fixedrelation to each other in the holder, the upper part B being providedwith means for its ready removal from the die-holder, substantially asshown and described.

In witness whereof I hereunto set my hand 3 5 in the presence of twowitnesses.

FRANK ll'. LA PIERRE. lVitnesses:

I'IENRY IDIN, Jr., WM. R. STRONG.

